OUYA CREATE will give developers a chance to win $45,000 in prizes for showcasing game prototypes

While OUYA has been hard at work compiling its impressive list of development partners for the console’s spring launch, the folks behind the Kickstarter sensation wants to encourage developers everywhere to create wares for the console. It’s easy enough to create and port games to OUYA with the ODK, but perhaps a little bit of a fruitful nudge will get a few more independent developers excited for the Android console.

That’s where OUYA CREATE comes in, a new development competition that will deliver $45,000 in cash and prizes for developers to create working game prototypes for OUYA. The games have to be new, meaning no porting existing titles, and the prototypes have to be whipped up by January 23rd. If you can buckle down and get knee deep into some code you could find yourself in line for some nice prizes. Here’s a more detailed account of how things will go down:

Create a *new* game for OUYA – any style, any genre as long as it’s playable (and, of course, fun).

Submit your playable OUYA game prototype between January 14 and 23 to Kill Screen for review.

Show off a video of your demo on YouTube, tweet it up on Twitter, gather your fans on Facebook to gain gamer support and awareness of your OUYA game. Social media support will be one of the criteria used to select finalists.

Kill Screen is OUYA’s partner on the competition, and they — alongside some other industry names — will be the ones reviewing and judging entries. Winners will be picked based on purposely subjective views of the games’ “sheer greatness,” community support for the game (meaning you need to get those “likes” and “thumbs up” campaigns going), and successful use of the OUYA to its full potential.

The grand prize will be $20,000, nothing to sneeze at for most budding independent game developers. The grand prize winner will also get a “you did it” bonus once the game is complete and fully launches on OUYA. Five runner ups will receive $5,000 for winning one of the following categories:

“Most Surprising” Award: For the game that does something new and unexpected.

“Four Bright Buttons and Two Joysticks” Award: For the game demonstrating the best controls.

“Most Immersive” Award: For best demonstration of how a game feels in your living room, instead of your pocket.

“Best Couch with Friends” Award: For the game that makes us most nostalgic for the days of all-nighters and Goldeneye in our friend’s basement.

“Pop Your Eyes Out” Award: For the game that astounds, visually.

And should those winners complete and launch their games, they will get $1,000 bonuses. It sounds great to me. I would be quick to download the ODK if I were a developer because these are some great prizes to be had, and if you were looking to expand your portfolio and get some more eyes on your wares then this is a great way to do just that.

Entries will be accepted starting January 13th and will continue to be accepted through January 24th. Head to the OUYA CREATE site for more details. Oh, and if you’re looking for an awesome community to share ideas with why not head to OUYABoards.com and sign up? It only takes a minute, and you’ll be mingling with some of the most enthusiastic OUYA fans you’ll find.

This isn’t enough time for any type of decent developer to design a new game worth anything. The games will be weak. Besides the social media outlets will be one by the group who already has the most devout and biggest followings regardless of the product. This isn’t enough time to build steam for a train.

Imparus

Considering this is money earned for a prototype before the game is even release, it isn’t a bad idea, since after the competition you can finish and release the game in the play store.
But yeah it is quite a short amount of time, which could make this whole competition pointless.

Derpy

yep. this is gonna be a hard competition. making a game with that time is gonna be hard. The only games im thinking that would be completed are the Unity3d projects in Beta right now. Other than that, if you havent started on a project, good luck to you.

Bradley Berthold

$20,000 is not worth it, seriously. Just to whore yourself out to a new platform? And only one dev gets that? I’m sick of these stupid platforms. You want devs, then pay for them! Pay a bunch of Devs to start on your platform! You won’t succeed without them, so seed them.

scoter man1

I’m sick of hearing about ouya all together.

Michael Thompson

Not me!
The more I think about it the more it seems like the most legit Android stick computer ever…only in a cube format.

As much as I don’t see owning one for it’s intended purpose, it seems like it might be interesting to tinker with, which has changed my opinion of it.

I can already see hacking an external WiFi antenna onto the thing for starters…

Derpy

Im getting it, but not to hack it or anything (not a techie :( ) but I do love Indie Games and I feel like OUYA can be a new source for all them indie devs.

Saleenfiend

A free $20 grand on top of games sales is a plus. It’s not like that all they have the potential to make.